You know, I've been sitting here watching your lonesome post be unanswered for 17 hours, and the reason that it is unanswered is because it's useless from jump. There was no such idea as skills or masterwork in that previous version.

Actually Neue, there may have been "masterwork thieves tools" in 2ed. I don't remember which book they may be in (Thieves Handbook maybe?) but they probably gave the character a small bonus to his open locks percentile.

Could be, Steve. I never had splatbooks for that game, either. Much. Seems I do remember some paperback sorta book called "Druids Handbook" or "Rangers Handbook" or "Celtic Handbook", cuz I remember some rules for Cu Chalain throwing spears with his feet?

I took a quick look through the Thief's Handbook last night to see if I could find anything in there (I had every intention of answering this thread, I was just doing the research!) and I didn't see anything like that. However, I do have a distinct memory of some high quality tools that did give something like a 5% bonus to lock pick attempts (and maybe some other benefit). I just can't remember where I saw them. Maybe it was a Dragon article, or maybe they're in Arms and Equipment Guide (which is one of the few books I don't have), or somewhere else entirely.

Neue is right in general principle, though - the idea of "masterwork" as a general identifier for items just didn't exist in AD&D. There were some items which you could buy at a higher quality that might give you some kind of special benefit, but there wasn't a universal label or rule for it.

Just had a look at the Arms and Equipment guide from the Core Rules CD and it describes a "deluxe" thieves' tools kit that has acid, magnifying glass, and mini-crowbars - but it doesn't give any game mechanics benefits for them.

I'll have a dig around tonight and see if I can find my copy of Aurora's.

Thanks guys. One of my players wanted to buy them, and I assumed he'd read about them somewhere. He was a D&D novice, and I (as DM) hadn't played in years. I took a quick look through some rulebooks but didn't see anything. So, seeing as how we were in the middle of an adventure, I said sure, he could buy them. I thought I'd find the rule on them when I had more time, but alas I couldn't. So looks like I'll just make up something for them, some very small bonus.